Almost 150 workers soon will join the ranks of the unemployed after a call center announced it would close June 1.

Stellar Relay operates the state-funded relay center, which helps the deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired communicate over the phone.

It has filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act with the California Employment Development Department saying it will close and lay off its 147 Salida workers.

The impending closure isn't surprising.

In February, the state awarded a new contract for the relay service to another vendor. And last month, a Stellar Relay spokeswoman said the call center would close if her company could not find new business opportunities by June.

These layoffs won't help Stanislaus County's unemployment rate, which was 19.2 percent in March, the most recent month for which statistics are available.

But the call center workers have skills that employers want, said Jeff Rowe, director of the Alliance Worknet, which is part of the Stanislaus Economic Development and Workforce Alliance.